News of the World phone hacking: Legal loophole to be closed

Government plans to shut loophole that makes it legal to hack into someone else's voicemail messages

Clive Goodman, former royal correspondent of News of the World, leaves the Old Bailey in 2006. Goodman was jailed after being found guilty of illegally obtaining messages left on mobile phones belonging to members of the royal household. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

The government is planning to close a loophole in the law that makes it legal to hack into someone else's voicemail messages if they have already been listened to by the owner.

The police startled the culture select committee by revealing the loophole under section 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

The committee pointed out that the loophole meant the hacking of messages that had already been opened was not a criminal offence and the only action the victim could take was to pursue a breach of privacy issue. Downing Street sources said the Home Office would look at how quickly the loophole could be closed.

The Metropolitan police said the loophole was a key reason why it could not reopen its inquiry into the extent of phone hacking by News of the World staff.

The ministerial moves came as the Conservative chairman of the committee defended its report into press standards in the face of furious criticism from the NoW's publisher, News International.

John Whittingdale told the BBC: "We've now discovered that actually the extent of the phone hacking went very wide indeed. We'll probably never know quite how many, but the police have already now said that [it was] 91 individual numbers."

The report accused executives at News International of "obfuscation" and "collective amnesia" over allegations of widespread phone hacking at the paper. It said it was inconceivable that Clive Goodman, the paper's former royal editor, was the only person engaged in the practice.

Goodman was jailed in 2007 after being found guilty of illegally obtaining messages left on mobile phones belonging to members of the royal household. Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was on the paper's payroll, was also sent to prison.

The report provoked an angry response from Rupert Murdoch's media empire, which said in a statement that some MPs on the committee had "pursued a party political agenda" and accused the committee of "resorting to innuendo, unwarranted interference and exaggeration".

Whittingdale said: "I can understand why News International are unhappy with the report. I would only say that the report was agreed by the whole committee."

The MPs' report into press standards, privacy and libel contains wide-ranging proposals about strengthening the regulation of the press and changing the libel laws. It was reopened in July, after the Guardian revealed the NoW had paid more than £1m to three people, including the Professional Footballers' Association chief executive, Gordon Taylor, in an attempt to prevent further examples of phone hacking at the paper becoming public.

The Press Complaints Commission, lambasted by MPs for its "naive" investigation into the Guardian's revelations, said there were lessons to be learned, but defended its role as industry regulator.

The PCC director, Stephen Abell, said MPs had failed to understand the work the PCC carried out. "We are … concerned that the select committee has somewhat underrated the level of proactive work already undertaken by the PCC. This includes the widespread contact with potential complainants, and with representatives of vulnerable people."

The PCC said it would consider the committee's findings – which included recommendations that it be able to levy fines on errant newspapers and even stop them printing for an issue – at its next meeting.

MPs also criticised the Information Commissioner's Office, which is required to protect individuals' data privacy, accusing it of "confusion and obfuscation" when it was asked which public figures had been targeted by the NoW.

When News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman was arrested for illegally intercepting phone calls it began a sequence of events that saw the paper's editor resign, a PCC inquiry, Andy Coulson becoming Tory head of communications, legal action against the paper, which was then revealed by The Guardian, a Commons culture select committee investigation and a damning report. Here is how these events are connected.